More than half of Germans want Chancellor Angela Merkel to run for a fourth term as the conservative candidate in the 2017 federal election, a poll showed Wednesday, despite a dip in her popularity due to her liberal migrant policy. Some 59 percent of Germans want Merkel to put herself...

The deployment in South Korea of the U.S. military's THAAD system, designed to counter North Korea's missile threat, will go ahead as planned under a Trump administration, the South's ruling party chief said on Wednesday, citing the defense minister. Saenuri Party policy chief Kim Gwang-lim...

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated businessman Donald Trump on his victory in the U.S. presidential election in a telegram on Wednesday, the Kremlin said. "Putin expressed hope for joint work to restore Russian-American relations from their state of crisis, and also to address...

(Middle East Monitor)- Libyan pro-government forces said on Tuesday that they discovered a special prison in Sirte set up by the Daesh group for prisoners it sentenced to death. Alhurra TV quoted the Libyan forces saying that the building contained small cells with ventilation ducts but no...

Reporting by Manar Abdulrazak (Eqtsad)- Aleppo's western neighborhoods have been witnessing a wave of displacements due the ongoing onslaught by regime forces and allied militias that resulted hike in prices and shortage in the basic needs. Om Mohamed, based in New Aleppo neighborhood,...

Iraqi Kurdish forces have seized the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from ISIS, an official said Tuesday, as U.S.-backed militia forces advanced on the extremists' Syrian stronghold Raqqa. Capturing Bashiqa would be a final step in securing the eastern approaches to Mosul, three weeks into an...

|(Middle East Eye)- Saudi Arabia has informed Egypt that shipments of oil products expected under a $23bn aid deal have been halted indefinitely, suggesting a deepening rift between the two countries. On Monday Egypt's oil minister, Tarek El Molla, confirmed Saudi Arabia had stopped...

 The Russian naval group in the Mediterranean, headed by the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, is preparing an offensive against rebels on the besieged neighborhoods of Aleppo city, according to reports citing a source in the Defense Ministry. Jets from the Admiral Kuznetsov, the Peter...

(Al Arabiya)- Republican Donald Trump is projected to become the next United States president after a bitter-fought election cycle against his rival Hillary Clinton. Trump finally won surpassing the necessary 270 votes after clinching Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes to win the presidency....

Both chambers of the U.S. Congress are projected to remain under Republican control when they convene on Jan. 3, with voters on Tuesday dashing Democrats' hopes of taking over the Senate while keeping the House of Representatives in Republican hands. A few Senate races were still undecided,...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Powerful Jabhat Fateh al-Sham executed 6 men on Monday over claims of pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group in the southern province of Quneitra, activists said. The six young men, who were born in the tribes-dominated village of al-Danaji in the capital’s western...

Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed heads to Paris Wednesday in a bid to drum up French investment in the struggling economy of its former North African colony. Chahed, 41, will meet his counterpart Manuel Valls and President Francois Hollande during the "strategic" visit, he told AFP in...

At first, the French viewed the U.S. presidential election with delight: It was a quintessentially American sitcom, reality television let loose into the realm of reality. But then delight became shock, and shock became horror. In recent months, François , France’s president, has been...

When Saada al-Aboud saw Islamic State fighters bringing weaponry into her village near their Syrian bastion of Raqa, she feared she and her family would become human shields for the jihadists. "Daesh fighters brought heavy weapons to our village and stayed among us so that if there were...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The death toll of Syrian regime air strikes on northern Idlib province has risen to 21 after the deadly bombing on Barabo village that left 10 civilians dead, mostly family members, volunteer rescuing group said Tuesday. Hours before, at least 11 people, including 3 children...

Iraqi investigators carried out an initial examination on Tuesday of a mass grave site discovered in an area south of Mosul that was recently retaken from the Islamic State group. Iraqi security forces announced the discovery of the site in the Hamam al-Alil area the day before, after...

(The Daily Star)- Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem said Tuesday that the new U.S. administration will determine how long the war in Syria continues, adding that his party "sees no way to back out of Aleppo and Syria" before “victory.” “Despite all sacrifices made, we will...

After a long and exceptionally negative campaign, Americans by the millions voted on Tuesday for their next president as opinion polls showed Democrat Hillary Clinton with a narrow lead over Republican Donald Trump. In a battle that focused on the character of the candidates, Clinton, 69, a...

Russia is preparing to resume air strikes around the Syrian city of Aleppo "in coming hours", the Interfax news agency cited a source in the Russian Defence Ministry as saying on Tuesday. The Kremlin said on Monday Russia's air force would maintain a moratorium on strikes in Aleppo unless...

Islamic State fighters have forced thousands of civilians to retreat with them from Hamam al-Alil as Iraqi police were recapturing the town, and moved them towards Mosul airport, the UN said on Tuesday. Iraqi forces retook the key town from the extremists on Monday, in a major win in its...